


I Came For You (But Did You Ever Doubt I Would?)

by ellacj



Series: Don't Leave Me Alone (You Know I Never Could) [2]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, True Love's Kiss, lots and lots of angst, they cry a lot i don't even know why
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-26
Updated: 2014-08-26
Packaged: 2018-02-14 22:28:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2205351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellacj/pseuds/ellacj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes happy endings aren't always what we think.</p><p>Sequel to "Prick Your Finger"</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Came For You (But Did You Ever Doubt I Would?)

**Author's Note:**

> By popular demand, the sequel and resolution to "Prick Your Finger". Thanks so much for the support you've given me; I love you guys so so so much <3

_And somewhere in another world, a blonde woman sits bolt upright in bed, suddenly remembers everything and everyone she left behind in a town that no longer exists. Through the sweat that coats her body and gasping breaths that wrack her frame, she utters one word._

_“Regina._

“Henry.” Emma shakes her son awake, ignoring his groans of protest. “Come on. We have to go. Now.”

“Is something on fire?” he asks through his sleep.

“No, we just… we have to go.” _He doesn’t remember_. The realization hits her like a punch in the gut. He still has cursed memories. “There’s somewhere we need to be. People that need us.” _Regina. Regina, Regina, Regina_. The name repeats in her head like a mantra, and there’s an uncontrollable need to save the woman who’d made no secret of hating her.

Until she kissed her.

Emma’s still not sure why Regina kissed her that day; all she knew is that she wanted to do it again. And now she wants it again and again. She refuses to stop and think about what that means. All she can think now is that she needs to get to Storybrooke.

“Who needs us?” Henry’s up now, pulling on a shirt and yanking Emma out of her thoughts.

“People who love us. Pack a bag. We might be gone a while.”

“Ma… are you okay?”

Emma stops. Is she okay? What the hell is she doing, uprooting her son in the middle of the night to go save an evil queen’s life? But she’s not that person anymore. She’s just someone that needs help.

And Emma’s going to give her that. “I’m fine,” she mutters before going to her bedroom to pack her own bag.

 _Last minute job assignment. Don’t know when I’ll be back_ , she tells Walsh in a text. When she meets Henry in the living room, he’s got a duffel bag at his feet filled with clothes and entertainment.

It’s a four hour drive to Storybrooke. By the time they get there, it’s light out. But as Emma passes the spot where she crashed her car a year ago, the Storybrooke sign is gone. Her chest tightens with the memory of what Regina told her that day.

_Storybrooke will no longer exist._

No. It can’t be gone. Storybrooke was the first place she ever called home. Her family was here. She supposes some part of her knew that it wouldn’t be here when she arrived, but she let herself hope. And that was always her downfall.

She parks the car in the middle of the forest that had replaced the little town.

“Ma?” Henry asks tentatively. “Where are we?”

“Stay in the car.” Her voice sounds like it’s coming from outside her body as she gets out. The clock tower should be right in front of her and the apartment block where she lived with Mary Margaret right beyond that. And then she realizes where she’s standing. She’s not sure how she knows; something deep in her gut just tells her that this is it.

This is where Regina’s house once stood.

Big and white and imposing Emma once dreaded the mansion, but now she wants nothing more than to sit down on that couch in the study and drink cider just like that first night she spent in Storybrooke. Wants nothing more than to sit there with Regina.

Somehow she ends up sitting on the ground with her knees drawn up to her chest, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

Then there’s arms around her. Small, strong arms. “What’s wrong?” Henry asks.

“It was here. They were all here.” A choked sob escapes her and Henry’s arms tighten around her. “They have to come back. They have to someday.”

“Who’s coming back?”

Emma turns and meets his eyes. “Didn’t I tell you to wait in the car?”

“I got out.” He shrugs. “Who’s coming back?”

“Our family.”

***

They camp out in the Bug for a week. Henry’s a bit wary at first, but seeing the way his mother is in this place, he stays without question – question out loud anyway.

Emma’s losing hope that they’ll ever return to the place where Storybrooke used to be. Was it even real? Was any of it ever real? What if it was just a dream, a desperate wish to find her family? She’s about to give up and go home one night as she goes to sleep, but what she sees when she wakes up changes her mind.

They’re parked in the middle of Main Street.

“Hey, move the damn car!” someone shouts, before breaking off as they take a second look at the car in question.

Emma blunders out with her hand held over her eyes to shield her vision from the bright sunlight. It can’t be. She’s dreaming, right?

“Emma?” a voice says behind her.

Emma turns around and it’s Ruby standing there, dressed in her usual tight shorts and vast amounts of eyeliner. The remains of a cup of coffee lay at her feet and the brown liquid is dripping from her shins, but she doesn’t seem to notice. She just stands there, staring, as though she’s seen a ghost.

Emma runs to her and throws her arms around the girl’s neck. “God, I missed you.” She’s never been one for hugging, but this is an exception she’s willing to make.

“How did you get back?”

“I got my memories back. I… got a message from someone.” Her face blanches. “Where’s Regina?”

Ruby tenses. “Emma…”

“I know what happened. I need to get to her. Now.”

“Your parents…”

“Can wait,” Emma says firmly. “Where is she?”

“She’s in her house. But seriously, go see your parents. They’re having a meltdown being here without you.”

“Thank you so much, Ruby. It’s so good to see you.” She gets back in the car before she realizes. Henry still doesn’t remember. She can’t take the kid into a stranger’s house and kiss some unconscious woman until she wakes up without raising some flags. So she does what she has to do.

She parks the Bug in front of the apartment block. “You ready to meet your family, kid?”

He grins from the passenger seat. “Yeah.” He follows Emma up the stairs to the same apartment where she met her mother without even knowing it.

She hesitates in front of the door. What the hell is she gonna say? _Hi, can you watch my kid who doesn’t know who you are while I go try True Love’s Kiss on your stepmother? Long time no see, thanks, mom!_ She knocks three times.

Snow opens the door, her jaw dropping when she sees who’s standing in front of her. “Emma.” Her voice is barely even a whisper as she slowly pulls her daughter into a tight hug.

Emma buries her face in Snow’s shoulder to hide her tears from Henry. “I remember,” she says into the soft cardigan pressed against her face. “I remember everything.” Then she feels it. The swollen stomach pressed against her flat one. “You’re pregnant.”

Snow pulls away with a grin. She’s crying too, Emma notices. “We were hoping you’d get back before he was born.”

“It’s a boy?” Emma breaks into a teary smile. She’s got a brother. Granted, he’s thirty years younger than her, but he’s her brother.

“Well, he will be. In two months. David’s not here, but he’ll be home soon. Oh god, he’ll be so happy.” Snow tries to usher her inside, but Emma holds fast.

“I missed you guys so much,” Emma begins. “And I promise I’ll be right back. But there’s something I have to do.”

Snow nods slowly. “Regina.”

Emma glances at Henry. “Henry, why don’t you go inside? Maybe Mary Margaret can make you some cocoa later.”

Henry nods and goes into the apartment, leaving Snow to look at her, confused.

“He doesn’t remember. I don’t know why. I’m gonna ask Regina to make a memory potion once…”

Snow leans against the doorframe with her arms crossed and eyebrows raised. “So you really think you two are True Loves?”

“I don’t know… but I have to try. I have to.”

“Go.” Snow rests a hand on Emma’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of Henry.”

Emma smiles gratefully. “Thank you. Mom.”

And the words bring on a fresh wave of tears for both of them as Emma walks away and Snow closes the apartment door.

It’s such a short drive from the apartment to the mansion, but it feels like it takes hours before she’s finally pulling up outside the big, imposing house. Her heart races as she goes up the walk. The door is unlocked.

The foyer is unchanged from the first time she was here a lifetime ago, and Emma finds herself drinking everything in as she slowly walks up the spiral staircase. Regina’s bedroom turns out to the first door she opens upstairs, and when she walks in she sucks in a sharp breath.

Regina looks like she’s dead.

Emma closes the door behind her and walks on wobbly knees to kneel beside the bed. Regina lies on her back, hands folded neatly across her chest. Her breathing is so shallow that her stomach barely moves with each one. Her skin is pale and her red lips are accentuated just that much more.

“Regina,” Emma whispers, running her fingers gently over Regina’s unmoving arm. “Why did you do this to yourself?” _I have to try_. She leans in at a snail’s pace, until her breath is blowing directly over Regina’s lips before closing the distance. She holds it for several seconds, but when she pulls away Regina looks exactly the same.

Or is she paler than she was?

“So I guess where not True Loves then, huh?” Emma forces herself to chuckle as though the woman she… cares a lot about isn’t lying before her on the line between life and death and she has no idea what can save her.

She stays there for another hour. Just clutching Regina’s hand, murmuring apologies she doesn’t even know if Regina can hear. And then she goes back home. To her parents’ apartment.

Snow looks up with a question dancing in her eyes, but Emma just shakes her head in defeat.

“I’m sorry, Emma,” Snow says quietly, wrapping her daughter in a tight hug. “We’ll get her back. I promise you we’ll find a way.”

It’s two weeks before they do.

Emma goes to Regina’s house every day without fail and talks to the unconscious woman in the bed. Whispers soothing words and holds her hand and does everything she wishes she did before she had to leave.

And every day when she leaves she kisses Regina gently on her red, red lips, hoping that maybe today is different. Maybe today they’re True Loves.

There’s one day that Emma knows she’ll remember for the rest of her life; curses and spells be damned. It’s the day that Henry gets his mind back.

Gold drops off a memory potion at the apartment one day. None of them asked for one; and he doesn’t ask for a price in return. “Just wake her up,” is his only request.

So Snow makes three mugs of hot cocoa with cinnamon, and Emma pours the potion into the one in Henry’s blue mug. They all hold their breath as he sips the drink.

His pupils dilate and his fingers shake, and his voice is trembling as he whispers, “I remember.” He turns to Snow. “Grandma.”

Snow rushes forward and pulls Henry into a tight hug. “We missed you.”

Emma rests a hand on Henry’s shoulder. “Henry. There’s something you gotta know. It’s… it’s about your mom.”

Henry frowns. “What is it?”

“Come on.” She gently guides him to the door, glancing over her shoulder at Snow one last time before walking out the door. They don’t talk on the way to the mansion. But Emma can feel Henry tense beneath the hand on his knee when they pull up outside.

“You okay?” she asks softly.

“Yeah. I think so.”

Emma takes his hand and leads him into the mansion. She squeezes tighter as they walk through the foyer, knowing all too well what he must be feeling. “Henry, if you don’t think you can handle this…”

“What happened to her?”

Emma sits him down on Regina’s couch, ignoring the niggling voice in her head saying _Regina should be sitting across from you_. “After they went back to the Enchanted Forest. Your mom was having a hard time. Snow, she… she tried her best to talk her out of it, but…” she trails off. “She put herself under a sleeping curse. And it can only be broken by True Love’s Kiss.”

Henry’s face crumples. “So she… that’s why you never had me meet her?”

Emma nods slowly. “I’ve tried to wake her up. I tried, Henry. I’m just not it for her I guess.”

“It was Daniel,” he says quietly. “She told me about him once. He died.”

“So…” Emma’s blood runs cold. What if she’s never able to wake Regina? What if Daniel was the only one who could do it?

“We’ll wake her up,” Henry promises. “We’ll find a way.”

“Do you wanna see her?”

“Yeah.”

Emma stands up and reaches for his hand again. “Then let’s go.” She leads him up spiral stairs that lead to a room she always imagined seeing under different circumstances. She pauses outside the door, steeling herself before turning the knob and opening the door enough for them to go inside.

Henry walks in on trembling legs and gently rests his hand on his mother’s forearm. “Mom, he says, voice breaking. “Mom, I’m here. I’m home.” He leans down over her head and ghosts his lips over her forehead, tears falling and landing in her eyelashes.

Henry sighs. “I’m sorry, Mom.” He turns to Emma, a silent request to leave. They walk out the door, hand in hand, and drive back to the loft apartment.

They don’t see the brown eyes behind them fly open.

***

Regina opens her eyes and there’s a ceiling above her. _Henry_ , is all she can remember. _He came_. She sits up slowly, just in time to see the backs of a blonde-haired woman and a young boy with tufty brown hair closing the door behind them.

“Henry.” Her voice is hoarse with disuse. “Emma.” Her legs are weak and they wobble beneath her as she tries to stand up.

She’s in Storybrooke.

They returned to Storybrooke. And Henry and Emma, they found her, and they just… left. She was only semi-aware when she was under; she must have been mistaken. Those can’t have been Emma’s lips on hers. But maybe…

She has to find them.

She’s really not safe to drive right now. She knows that much, at least. But maybe she can catch them before they leave her house. And so she stumbles out the door, thankfully finding enough balance to get down the stairs without falling. There’s no one downstairs. Regina runs to the front door, flinging it open just as Emma and Henry are getting to that yellow eyesore of a car. “Henry!” she shouts, as loud as she can with her neglected voice.

The boy turns around. She sees his lips form the word, but he’s too far away, says it too quietly for her to hear. “Mom.” And then he’s running at her, and she’s running too, and they meet in the middle of the sidewalk to her house and his arms are wrapped around her waist, her fingers stroking through his hair and they’re both crying and neither of them know how to stop.

And when she looks up Emma’s crying too, although she stays a few feet away. Even she knows not to interrupt this moment.

“Emma,” she whispers. Henry pulls away, though he still remains close to her as she walks forward to stand directly in front of Emma.

“Hi.” Emma gives a sheepish smile and a tiny wave, the same one she gave the first night they ever met.

And then they’re kissing. Pale hands find purchase around a satin-clad waist, pulling her closer, and Regina realizes she’s wearing a nightgown (she doesn’t care), and slender olive fingers tangle themselves in long blonde curls.

Regina’s the one to break it, finding herself breathing hard when she does. “You found me.”

Emma smiles. Her fingers dance up and down Regina’s arms. “Did you ever doubt I would?”

And maybe they’re not True Loves, maybe they’re not destined to be together, but maybe that’s okay. Because maybe, just maybe, they’re enough. Maybe they can find a way to survive in this rollercoaster life, maybe they can find happiness.

And maybe, if they’re lucky, they can find it with each other.


End file.
